


The Altar

by ToxicSpeka



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Body Horror, Gen, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2019-10-27 21:39:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17774681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicSpeka/pseuds/ToxicSpeka
Summary: Everything has been acting strangely recently. First, it was the Chaos Emeralds, then the environment, and the people, and finally, the Master Emerald. Things don't add up anymore, everything is a little off. And painful. Just enough to not notice at first, but it's there, and it all revolves around Knuckles who very much has zero idea what he's doing and why. [Tags and Title subject to change]





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've lost control man  
> I have five stories man  
> Five  
> This is the Sixth Damn Story  
> It will have a slower update time, that's for sure

  “...aaand that's,” Knuckles huffed, straightening his back as he rubbed sweat from his brow. “...All I can do, until I can figure this out.”

  He turned, staring at the altar. Brilliant green shone through the cracks of the many stones, boulders, mossy lumps, and vines the echidna compacted on top of the large gem, but that was all he could do for now. If he wasn't paying attention, he probably would have just called it a strange rock in passing.

  Knuckles gripped his left arm and massaged it, attempting to get feeling back into the frozen limb. Had he not felt the rough grip he had on it, his mind would have entirely told him that it was dead by now.

  “Alright, you hear me through there!?” Knuckles called up the stairs, watching the Master Emerald’s shine deepen at his words. “Until you get yourself together, I'm gonna leave you like this, alright!”

  The glow only shone brighter. 

  He was afraid.

  It wasn't often that the echidna found himself afraid, but recently, he was downright terrified.

  The first few days this started happening, it just seemed like the Master was somehow pent up on energy…? He assumed it was because the overbearing task of constantly holding up the immense island and keeping track of the chaos emeralds became as mundane as breathing and blinking; so the Master had, in layman's terms, nothing better to do other than flood the echidna with energy whenever he touched it.

  Energy he had no use for.

  At first it was somewhat cool! He could exercise for longer, use the extra strength to test his limits, use the endurance to climb higher or hold his breath longer. The first few days were fine. Until they weren't. He'd gotten exhausted of the power, as sitting to guard the emerald, his favourite pasttime, only filled him with unease. Restlessness. His arm had started going numb from touching the Master, so he switched arms. Not like it helped any, the arm never seemed to heal. 

  Knuckles couldn't sit and simply enjoy the serenity or the calmness in the air or the sweet smell or the grass or the simple time of being able to sit and exist without a care in the world. Every moment filled with general anxiety. He was anxious. Anxious and itching to move around, do something, clean up, explore caves he never felt the need to look through, or see the life beneath the waters. He was always inclined to  _ do _ something whenever he sat next to the Master too long, so he spent time away from it to relax.

  Then, after possibly five days of only glancing at the Master from afar to check up on its general state, Knuckles walked up to it, sure it had spent enough time in timeout to be able to be sat next to again. He climbed the stairs, smiled gently, and reached out to rub its smooth surface in admiration.

  Just for  _ something _ intense to shoot through his arm like fire laced lightning and launched him back, tumbling backwards and crumbling into a heap in the dirt.

  He writhed in agony, chest frozen and less and less air filling his ever shrinking lungs. Half of his body was dead, frozen stiff, and burning hot liquid energy soared through his veins like a hot knife. If he wasn't looking at the bleeding limb, he would have thought it was removed. 

  There were many times that the Master had shot him back! Many times it rejected him, many times it had lashed out at him for something he forgot or did wrong, but this was different. Oh so different.

  After choking on his bloody spit for well over thirty seconds, Knuckles had recovered and crawled far enough away to sleep away the pain.

  Ever since that shock, whenever he attempted to even get remotely close to the gem it would cause his arm to go numb and freeze, no matter if it was wrapped up or currently moving before he got close. A few hours ago he had attempted to scratch into himself, to draw blood from the arm to see if the limb was alive or not. But, as his skin thinly parted beneath his small claw, it healed right back up. He had no explanation for why. 

  Today, the echidna stared at the gem in disdain.

  “...I don't know what to do, you know.” he spoke again, not expecting a response. “This hasn't happened before. Not to me, at least. Do you need to be used for something? Is something tragic going to come? I don't know, and… I don't trust you enough to allow you to show me.”

  The Master's glow seemed to dim, as if it itself began to regret what it was doing to him, and he sighed. “I know, I know… just… let me try to find something. Anything.”

  The echidna lowered his head and limped to the temple's stone door, where just behind it most of the runes he'd read time and time again laid. His head throbbed but he ignored it in favour of focusing on the cool stone, placing his hand, the one that currently still worked properly, against its rough surface. The stone lit up gently, welcoming, as it fell away with a shower of gravel and dirt.

  No matter how many times he's come through and cleaned all around, it  _ always _ managed to make him filthy with each visit.

  Knuckles let his fingers rub the wall as he descended the old staircase, unworried of where to place his next step. While the structure was much older than he could ever know, it was sturdy still. That was something he always wished to learn from his tribe, how to build structures that would remain for decades to come, but now wasn't the time for that.

  Focusing on the shapes before him, Knuckles read them carefully, looking for something that could possibly tell him any information about the Master’s odd change. It wasn't as if he was ever given an instruction manual going into this, there was next to nothing he could do right now other than research!

  “There it is,” he interrupted himself, staring at the runes closely. He started to speak aloud, hoping the sound of the words would shed more light.

  “‘The bearer of Chaos…’” he whispered, eyes trailing up to the drawing accompanying it. “‘The harvester’...?”

  The drawing was of an echidna… he assumed. His body seemed distorted. There was no more information other than those two lines, but he figured those lines were more important than what it actually said. Maybe the depiction was the clue, here.

  Or… maybe something else? Some of the runes were well worn away, so possibly he would be missing out on information anyway. 

  The dead weight at his side finally caught his attention and the echidna growled at the useless limb, then turned his glare to the ceiling. Apparently, he hadn't covered the gem enough. Or he had run out of time.

  “Just… why?” He hissed, but, as expected, gathered no answer.

  Looking at his arm in the low light didn't show much, but it did show a colour against his skin. Not the fur, his skin itself. It seemed… sickly, or alien. It was swollen now but as he parted his fur to examine himself closer, noticed bruises that weren't there before. Dark purple spots littered his arm throughout the expanse of his skin, and seemed to darken by the second.

  Not wanting to risk losing his arm anytime soon, the echidna raced up the stairs and tore out the temple at near top speed, clamoring to the same tree he had cowered to when the Master had harmed him the first time.

  Not only did his head still throb, but his arm would not calm down. The swelling had yet to stop, and the skin burned to the touch as if it was dead and infected. Knuckles was morbidly glad that he couldn't feel that arm, but the feeling tickling at his shoulder was where he felt the rest of the pain.

  “Stop,” the echidna chanted, thrusting his head backwards and scrunching up his nose at the pain of hitting the bark behind him. “Stop!  _ Stop!” _

  Panic started to settle in but he wouldn't allow it to overcome him, so he did the only thing that had calmed him down before and spoke to himself. There was no reason to panic, his arm just hurt! This probably happens to everyone at least once in their life!

  “Alright, okay,” he panted “I'm fine! I'm sure I'm fine! All I gotta do is-- is make the swelling stop! What stops swelling?”

  Knuckles stood just to almost topple over, catching himself with the tree at the last second. Too dizzy to run. Okay. Walking was fine. “Okay, uh… first aid for swelling is… lift-- elevation. Would be good if I could even  _ move _ my arm but--” He grabbed his arm and lifted it above his head, gritting his teeth at the pure agony it was for his shoulder to turn under such stress. “Fuck,  _ fuck _ , then  _ ice  _ but I don't  _ have _ ice so then  _ cold water _ .”

  The closest place with the coldest water was one of the small streams that flooded over the side of Angel Island, not more than a ten minute walk. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, no one was around to see his odd waddle of attempting to keep the sore limb from dropping below his head and from being jostled around too much. The grass beneath him darkened as he drew closer, and following it, the dirt began to turn to mud. One false step and the echidna slipped and crashed to his knees in the soggy muck, but he couldn't be happier to have fallen. He was closer to the water, anyway. He was glad that the stinging of his knees had overpowered whatever pain was in his shoulder when it turned again.

  Then came the dilemma of not exactly knowing how to put his arm in the water while keeping it elevated, but after no more than five seconds of thought, just laid down in the stream himself to gingerly set the inflamed limb in the water. He couldn't feel the stream going across it, but he knew it was, and he could see it do so.

  The cold water rushed over his dreads, across his chest, down his arms, stomach, legs… He didn't care that his shoes were going to possibly be ruined from the water, or maybe too wet to continue wearing and be comfortable, his mind was elsewhere, in a darker place.

  “I don't want to lose my arm.” The gravity of the situation started to set in, and he sucked in a deep breath. “I don't. I don’t.”

  The sound of the stream rushed past his shielded ears as the water seeped into his fur, and he shuddered. Why was the stream so cold, again?

  Talking didn't seem to help anymore. He gave up on that idea. He didn't have anyone else to talk to other than Tikal, and the only way to do so was through the Master Emerald. There was  _ no _ way he would go near the thing again, he physically couldn't anymore. If he wished to stay alive, he had to do… something.

  A darker thought crossed his mind, and he bit his tongue. The water seemed warmer now, but only around his eyes.

  Maybe… this was how a new guardian was chosen? The old one lost the ability to be next to the Master, and a new one replaced them…?

  Was he too old?

  No. He was just now 16.

  He couldn't be too old. Echidnas are a hearty tribe.

  ...were. They were.

  Plus, he had no one to give the responsibility to. Sonic was always off saving the world every ten seconds, Tails was right by his side, Amy had her own flower shop business outside of  _ also _ saving the world, Rouge would be more interested in stealing the Master instead of protecting it, and Shadow was almost always either on a mission or missing from the face of the earth somehow.

  The second water rushed into his ears was the second he sat up and rung out his dreads, grumbling about the odd feeling as he slammed his palm against the side of his head to knock the water out. How long had he been in the water for, five minutes? Ten? Knuckles lifted his hand to block the glare of the sun to stare up at the sky, just to pause and stare at his hand.

  He could move it.

  It wasn't swollen anymore! Still bruised, but not swollen! And he could move it! His excitement waned when he realized that he couldn't very much  _ feel _ the limb, but it was still there, he could move it, and he was fine.

  Everything was fine. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting into it

Life continued normally. Well, as normally as he would make it, given that he couldn't get close to the Master. A full day had passed, and while he had yet to get the feeling back in his arm, he was sure still having it and being able to control it would suffice. Then, came the task of finding answers. Knuckles wasn't someone who simply gave up on learning the true answer if he was given a different solution, he needed to know the reason behind this.

  He couldn't go the rest of his life guarding something he couldn't so much as go near. What if someone came to take it? What would he do, shout at them from a distance? How pathetic!

  Plus, this was serious. If the Master was acting up, that meant that the chaos emerald could soon follow. Or, maybe, it could be the other way around. If he said or did nothing, who knows what could happen.

  But… he couldn't just leave to explore again, could he?

  “I won't be long,” Knuckles told himself, standing a bit taller and crossing his arms. Narrowly avoided punching himself in the face as well, but he chose not to address that. “Just check those last caves and then… go from there?”

  Go from there, then.

  The last few caves he never thought or even attempted to explore were possibly in the worst places ever. One was entirely underground in a system of tunnels he still got lost in from time to time, one was at the bottom of the massive lake where he wasn't exactly sure if he would make the trip there without passing out, and the last one was much smaller and near the top of one of the mountains.

  The first cave wasn't very impossible to get to, it was more of just a pain in the backside to navigate the tunnels. If he didn't know better, he would have sworn that the walls moved.

  He also didn't remember which mountain to go to for the last one, as most of them had small almost-cave like indents in the walls and the rest had partial caves that didn't go anywhere. And he knew, too. The echidna once spent hours pawing at every surface in an attempt to find some sort of secret passage imbedded in the rocks. Even worse was that most of the caves were only accessible via thin ledges that crumbled with nearly every step and loose rocks that shatter if you so much as breathed on them.

  “I guess, water first.” He huffed, turning towards the direction of the lake. It wasn't  _ very _ far, but it sure wasn't a short walk. “I might as well risk drowning first before going to nearly fall to my death or get buried alive.”

  Knuckles set off, not before taking a quick glance at the Master. Still tied up right where he left it. Instincts told him to quickly untie it to check on it, to  _ really _ make sure it was there, before he shook his head and growled to himself. It's there. It will still be there when he returned. If it wasn't, it would warn him.

  The hesitation stilled him for far longer than his wished, but this time it was unexplained. He felt a sort of…  _ tugging _ sensation, similar to chaos control. However, it felt as if he was being summoned somewhere. Still on the island, as why he wasn't actually moved.

  Had Knuckles not shook his head clear and squared his shoulders, he would have blindly followed whatever call that was.

  The echidna set off towards the lake without a second thought, fully intending to dive in and find the cave once he did so, but his communicator suddenly ringing made him flinch a bit and raise his wrist to glare at it. Too many things were already happening, bad enough he had something serious on his hands!

  Sonic. What could  _ he _ possibly want now, right when he was actually busy? Knuckles debated not answering for a second, but on the last ring, answered with a sigh.

  “Hell--?”

  Screaming cut him off, but not from right near the receiver. It was further away, and whoever was currently closest was panting.

  “ _ Knuckles _ ,” it was Tails. He could tell, just from that one gasp, that he was sobbing. “I don't-- I tried-- It won't--” He chanted, clearly of no help. He paused as Sonic groaned in agony, a loud  _ thump _ following. A second carried on behind it, and Tails sounded a bit closer to the receiver.

  “Tails,  _ Tails _ , breathe, what's going on?” knuckles  tried to speak clearly but even he began to panic, legs automatically carrying him to pace the area. “Is that Sonic?”

  “Sonic, y-yeah, he's…” A few sniffles and broken silence followed the pause as the screaming in the back finally died down, remaining as a guttural moan of pain. Sonic sounded closer, but he couldn't be understood. “It-- A chaos emerald--  _ attacked _ Sonic, it--”

  Tails stopped again, clearly trying to gather himself. If anything, he sounded more distressed than legitimately sad. “I can't pick it up, it keeps hurting me, and-- and Sonic can't get up. He can't get up. He's bleeding and he can't get up.”

  “Is any part of him swollen or bruised?” The question came fast, but luckily the kit caught it all.

  “Y-yeah, his… legs, and chest. Swollen, I think…” There was a small shuffle, then a loud, sharp inhale. Tails continued. “I think bruised, too. He-- Sonic won't let me touch his legs.”

  “Is the emerald still around?”

  “Mmhm,” the was another pause as Tails was quietly heard nudging and shaking Sonic, attempting to keep him awake. “Why?”

  “Get something, whatever, and just push it away. Get rid of it. Slam a case over it and kick it into a closet, just  _ don't  _ touch it.”

  “And Sonic?” he was almost cut off as the other quickly asked, and Knuckles grunted. 

  “Run a bath of super cold ice water, and lay him in. I'll be right there.” ‘I hope,’ he added in his mind, vaguely aware of a sudden headache that began to form. Apparently, he had walked during the entire conversation. “Keep him cool, and whatever is bleeding, make sure--”

  Tails cut him off again with a mumble, but he knew what he was saying anyway and ended the call. Tails was a smart and strong kid, he always knew his stuff and never once called him in such a panicked state before, except for that one time when he was trapped in a cage overnight during a raging thunderstorm. So, something horrible must have happened to warrant such a response. Based on what little information he got, he assumed it was what happened between him and the Master just two days ago.

  Tails didn't get that stressed easily.

  Seconds passed of pure silence, of Knuckles staring at his wrist, debating another call.

  After a minute or so, he caved, dialing Sonic this time. Hopefully either of them would answer. Not very long into the first ring, someone answered.

  “H-hey Knux, worried about me?” Sonic chuckled, followed by a wheezing cough. There was a soft splashing sound in the background.

  He sighed in relief. “Surprisingly, yes. I was. What even happened over there?”

  “I dunno,” A pause. He was talking slower than usual. “I was talking to Tails about something, I don’t remember what. Then, I picked up a chaos emerald to give to Tails so he could do something with it, and it  _ vanished _ , like,  _ poof _ !”

  “Vanished? If just went away when you touched it? Did you see where?”

  “Nah, I just picked it up, and it just looked like I wasn't holding anything in the first place, and--” He coughed again, cursing somewhat under his breath. “And these giant cuts showed up on my legs and chest and started bleeding everywhere! Apparently I passed out or something, and I woke up in the tub. It's all red.”

  “If… if you mean the water, I think you should get out now, it's full of blood.”

  “Nah, It's not. I'm not cut anywhere and I'm not bleeding anymore, it's just… red?” a different voice was heard, but too far to understand what it was saying. “Oh, gotta go. Tails needs me now.”

  Then, he hung up.

  Finally, no longer distracted by the call, his surroundings settled in and the significant ache in his arm brought him to attention. Knuckles was standing right in front of the Master, staring at the large, covered emerald in silence.

  “I have to help Sonic and Tails.” There was no easy way of doing this. But, hey, at least his head and arm didn't hurt as much as they did before! “Can you do this for me, help me help my friends, Master Emerald?”

  The glow seemed off. Not entirely different. More bright, maybe? Or that it seemed to be a different shade of green? He chose to ignore it, extending his still working arm. His palm hovered above the stone pile before him, and he could feel his heart racing.

  “My friends,” he repeated, then placed his hand on the cool, smooth rocky surface. Nothing like what he expected, somehow. He still expected the warmth, despite not directly touching the Master. “Need help, please…”

   Nothing happened, at first. He tried again, but still nothing happened. Knuckles turned somewhat to glance at his communicator, wondering if he could call Tails to pick him up, until his body froze up and burned simultaneously, claws dug into the rock as the world swam around him, twisting and spinning in the form of chaos control the Master itself could only provide.

  But this was wrong.

  This wasn't what normally happened.

  This hurt too much.

  This wasn't just normal pain, this was…

  A scream tore through his throat as he collapsed, crumpling onto a soft surface unlike grass.

  As the air cleared, the altar came to view. Void of anything. The Master Emerald was missing, along with Knuckles’ body. The only thing that remained was a pile of rocks, vines, and moss. The island began to crumble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ;)  
> Not 2k words but honestly who caaaares


	3. Chapter 3

The world faded in, starting with texture. He was laying on something soft but scratchy at the same time, and in an awkward position too. The room had an odd scent that he could never place but always could recognize, and he could hear water sloshing back and forth upstairs.

  Finally, Knuckles pushed himself onto his hands and knees and wheezed, a splitting headache rendering him vulnerable. Unable to move the slightest inch without it firing off. He wanted to scream, curl up and holler until it stopped, but decided against it. It would calm down soon enough, it had to. Something warm trickled from the back of his head, slowly trailing down to his neck before he reached up to swipe it away.

  His hand made contact with something warm, hard, and sharp. At first he feared he fell on a knife somehow, but that didn't entirely make sense. Firstly, he was in the living room, even Sonic wasn't dumb enough to leave a knife laying out in the living room. Secondly, there were multiple of them, and they each had a shape vaguely similar to one of his dreads, the very same that they were tucked under.

  He finally pulled his hand back just to wince at what was smeared over it. Blood, definitely.

  “That's not good…” he whispered dully, before taking his glove off entirely. “...I think Sonic is more important than me hitting my head on something.”

  The echidna got up fully, dusting himself off and marching up the stairs all while trying to quell his neverending migraine. Why now out of all times?

  As he reached the top step, he turned to see Sonic being half dragged half walked towards his room by Tails and hurried over. The kit looked up pleadingly, smiling when Knuckles swung Sonic's other arm over his shoulders and helped him the rest of the way there.

  He glanced towards the bathroom for a second, and when he saw no sign of blood in the draining water, sighed in relief.

  “Hey Knux,” Sonic greeted again, hissing in short pain when he had to manually drag his legs into bed. “See what I mean when I said ‘it's all red?’”

  At first, no, no he didn't, but when he looked closer Knuckles visibly flinched. Sonic's eyes were red. Not his entire eye, just his iris, and only half of it at that. The red color was bleeding into his normal deep green and it seemingly effected his vision.

  “Does that  _ hurt _ ?”

  “He says ‘no,’ but it really doesn't look healthy either.” Tails answered, while Sonic began to go off into his little world, whispering a chorus of ‘bleep, bloop!’ to himself in time with his blinks. His eyes switched colour from the stained red to his normal green with each blink.

  “Are you kidding? I once transformed into a giant werehog at night, I'm fine with some crystals sticking out my body.” Sonic grinned, then continued with his little chant of ‘bleep, bloop!’. The other two exchanged a quick glance.

  “He's not exactly acting healthy either.” Knuckles gestured to the odd hedgehog, just for the both of them to shake their heads. Nope. That  _ was _ normal Sonic anyway.

  “Where's that emerald you mentioned earlier? Did you get rid of it?”

  The fox shrugged. “I never saw it in the first place,” he sat next to his brother and pet him on the head just as he finished on a ‘bloop!’, where his eyes faded back to the stained red. It seemed that even when he changed it, thought they were unsure how he managed to do so, it would return to that colour. “When it first attached him, these red spike things stuck out of his legs and formed on his chest, and when I touched them I hurt me, somehow. It wasn't a specific pain, like burning or electricity, it just felt like my arms turned to stone or crushed or something…”

  The echidna hummed, absentmindedly reached for the spikes that were buried under his dreads. They were still there, alright, and so was the blood from before. Albeit much thicker as it had began to dry and coagulate. “Are you… sure?”

  “Positive.” Tails nodded urgently. “When those spikes came out, I just forgot all about the emerald until you called, and when you were talking about it I looked for it and it was just gone. I figured it might have went to Angel island?”

  He shook his head, pulling his hand back to drop it to his side. “No. I went to the Altar right after the call and didn't see it.”

  “Are you bleeding?”

  The question caught Knuckles off guard and he stuttered for a second, looking to Sonic as the hedgehog was clearly staring at his glove. He pulled it behind his back some. 

  “Are you sure that's not just your eyes?” Tails asked, though he looked at the echidna as well for a solid answer. Knuckles huffed. 

  For some reason, his shoulder was beginning to ache as well. He rubbed the area absentmindedly, feeling a large knot there. He assumed he simply fell on it too, and called it that, ignoring the sting that came from touching it.

  “I fell on my way here. I guess I haven't perfected my landing when it comes to chaos control…” He grumbled, trying his best to ignore Sonic's growing smirk. Tails only continued to look concerned. “But, I'm fine, I only hit my head.”

  “Yeah, then you're definitely fine with that giant, thick skull of yours.” Sonic couldn't help but laugh, the joke falling short when he was reduced to a coughing fit again.

  Tails sighed with a playful shake of his head, standing again and making to walk back downstairs.

  “I'm sure the emerald will turn up soon, and if not we'll use my tracker to fine it. For now, I'm going to make some lunch and Knuckles you're coming down with me so I can look at that cut of yours.” He called over his shoulder, pointing directly at the other. “No ifs ands or buts!”

  Knuckles relented without another word, simply giving a nod towards Sonic as a send off, expecting him to sleep off some of the recent trauma he experienced. “See ya.” He spoke, then left.

  As he was leaving, Sonic's eyes widened. He could see two green spikes sticking out from under some of his dreads, and on his left shoulder the tip of another spike began to show. They looked almost identical to the ones that burst from his calves.

  “Knux, wait--!”

  Just as he opened his mouth, the door shut on his face and Knuckles was gone. Sonic leaned to leave the bed and catch up with him but his legs remained dead to the world, sore but not stiff. He could very much still feel them, yet he still had to wait.

  “...hopefully Tails will notice, then.”

  Knuckles was only able to get to the bottom stair, in the middle of a sentence, when he cried out and fell.

  “Knuckles!”

  Tails’ voice was far from his mind, but he couldn't focus on the pain now. That would only make it worse. He clutched his shoulder as skin split suddenly, being shredded from the inside out before being bluntly forced apart by the spike slowly emerging from his flesh. Was it stored inside of him, clawing for a way out? There was no reason behind this. No reason. His throat felt sore, and he slowly noticed that it was due to his screaming. When had he even started to scream? He stopped. Abruptly, clawing at his shoulder as he tried to listen in on the kit's voice again.

  “...Tell me what was happening!? Is this what was going on--...” it faded again. It was drowned out, this time from a different noise.

  It wasn't him screaming. It was a sound from inside his head. Like bugs crawling around, under his skin, atop his skull itself, chewing into bone. It rattled his brain and made his ears feel as if they were stuffed with cotton, and he pulled his hands up to block the noise, but only one arm listened.

  “...ear me…?”

  “Barely!” He shouted, but he didn't mean to. Was the room this bright before? He hated it. He closed his eyes so he wouldn't see it again, but even the darkness of his eyelids seemed brighter than usual.

  A hand was placed under his arm, the dead one, and he was pulled upwards. Knuckles dragged his legs underneath him, the one hand that was once covering his ear now squeezing Tails’ shoulder in a death grip.

  The crawling noise stopped, or died down at least, and he spoke. “I thought I had just fell-- what was happening wasn't that bad,” he rasped, voice nearly gone. “I'm sorry.”

  “Don't be,” The kit reassured, looking towards the bathroom in utter surprise as he spoke. “We're friends, we're here for each other.”

  The tub was full of cold water, and laid next to it, halfway over the toilet, was Sonic. He had dragged himself out of the bed and crawled all the way into the bathroom to run water for Knuckles.

  The echidna finally opened his eyes, offering Sonic a look of compassion as the exhausted hog huffed and gave a thumbs up.

  Knuckles tried to smile, but it wouldn't come. He collapsed onto the edge of the tub and looked at his arm. It was too gruesome to look at for long, and in a hurry, he plunged himself into the freezing water with a shudder.

  “I tried to warn you.” Sonic shrugged, and Tails noticed that the red of his eyes now gave off a soft glow.

  He looked at Knuckles, and though he didn't say anything, noticed that half of his eyes were glowing such a bright green that it was almost white. His ears flattened against the back of his head.

  “Sonic got this way because he touched an emerald, right…?” He whispered, unsure who he was talking to. The hedgehog nodded anyway with a small ‘yeah?’. “And Knuckles, there was only one way you could have chaos controlled over here when the rest of the chaos emeralds were scattered… right?”

  “...Right.” Knuckles whispered, the word almost unheard.

  “...”

  “...”

  “I'm going to warn everyone not to touch any emerald for a while, okay?” Tails' voice rose in pitch, speaking while on the verge of a panic attack. “I know-- hope there’s only four out, I have… had… one, Shadow has one, Amy, and there's one at GUN with Rouge I think-- I'll be right back.”

  “Stay calm, little bro!” Sonic called after him, having tried to pull himself off the toilet to help him as well, but exhaustion was setting in fast. Knuckles looked up and watched the kit scurry off, but said nothing.

  “...Does that hurt?”

  “What?” Knuckles asked, not even looking towards the hedgehog. He felt horrible. He should have brought up the Master acting differently much sooner, when it first happened.

  “Your eyes are doing the thing, like mines. They're like, bright green though.” He shrugged, touching his chest where two shards of a red chaos emerald laid. The echidna didn't notice them before, and he noticed that Sonic wasn't wearing gloves right after the fact. “I wish I had green, at least my eyes wouldn't look so weird.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im sorry midi fjxncksnx


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning for blood

“Shadow? You're the last person I should reach. If you still have your emerald, you should  _ not _ touch it, hold it, or use it in any sort of way!”

  Laboured breathing answered back, and the kit blushed, feeling that he interrupted something private. 

  “Shad--?”

  “And what happens if I touch it?” He growled, cutting Tails off. “Will it fuse to my skin? Grow crystals out of my body?”

  “...Did you touch it?”

  Another growl followed, but it was quickly cut off with a dull thud and hiss. “Of  _ course _ I did! It hurts, like skin. I've tried cutting it, breaking it, shattering it. It's on both my hands. It's been like this for days, Miles. Days.”

  Tails took a deep breath, looking around as if there was a physical answer he could give him. Amy had left hers in a case, untouched, for a while. Rouge was tempted, but never had the time to use the one at GUN. She had only told him about Shadow when he mentioned that he was going to call him next, where she said he left the station early one day and hadn't returned since.

  “Can… you come here? Sonic and Knuckles are going through the same thing but theirs just started today, can--” he stopped again, but only because he heard his voice being echoed. Tails looked up to see Shadow standing before him, holding his communicator between his teeth.

  “Uh… hi?”

  Shadow tilted his head, attempting to move his communicator so he could speak, but gave up seconds into the action. “Hewwo.” He grunted instead, then dropped the watch onto the counter and lifted his hands.

  They were more like crystal claws, shiny green emerald spikes lining each finger until they looked almost monsterish. Then, he turned his hands over and showed their very normal underside, of just his palms and finger pads. It disturbingly reminded the kit of Mephiles.

  “Why were you holding that, that way?” Tails asked, eyeing the watch as he hung up on his end.

  “Watch,” Shadow placed his palm on the wall, then pulled it away. Nothing was on the wall, and Tails frowned a bit, expecting something spectacular to happen. Then, Shadow dragged the flat end of one of his emerald claws on the paint, making it burst into flames and peel away, as if recoiling from the shards.

  “My wallpaper!” Tails shouted, then recoiled at the green flames still licking at Shadow's fingers. He shook his hand a bit violently and it finally went out. “Wait, doesn't that hurt you?”

  “Yes, very much so. It doesn't feel like burning, but I can't describe what it does feel like.” Shadow shrugged, crossing his arms much to Tails’ distress, expecting him to spontaneously combust. It didn't happen. “Similar to… pressure? Crushing. As if someone was crushing your hand, but with sharp objects.”

  He didn't exactly know how to respond to that, so he figured it would be best to move on. “...Can you touch anything else?”

 He shook his head, making his way to leave the kitchen. He thought about apologizing for the wallpaper, but then again the kit also  _ asked _ . “The only things I've tried were various objects around my home. I need new furniture.”

  “Nothing living?”

  The glare alone sent Tails backpedaling, looking around again to avoid all eye contact as he stuttered something along the lines of ‘I mean-- like a plant!’

  “No.” The other huffed, turning his head to look at the ceiling. Tails followed his gaze, but saw nothing of much interest besides a bit of chipped paint. Shadow looked back at him, his irises a brilliant shade of emerald green before fading back to red. “I take it Sonic and the echidna suffered the same fate as I?”

  “Your… your eyes…?”

  “They turn green, I know.” he sighed. “It'd one of the things--” Shadow then disappeared not even a split second later, and there was a definite crash from upstairs followed by Sonic screaming for Tails in possibly the highest pitch he'd ever heard in a while.

  Tails hurried up the stairs, huffing as he almost tumbled into the room just to stop and stare.

  Shadow was currently tamping out green flames tearing at the carpet while a very surprised Knuckles managed to hold Sonic, who somehow jumped into the echidna’s one free arm and currently clutched his neck as if his life depended on it.

  “...I… Don't know if asking would even get me anywhere anymore.” The kit sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Honestly, he was tired of questions, all that brought was more confusion. It was obvious what happened… sort of. Shadow chaos controlled into the room, by accident he assumed, and set part of the already beaten carpet on fire and startled Sonic.

  “Shadow, you got the chaos infection too??” Sonic gasped, just now seeing the other hedgehog’s claws. Once the fire seemed to cease, Shadow sighed.

  “‘Chaos infection’...?” he scratched at his wrist, ignoring the stinging pain there. “... If you could call it that, then yes.”

  “How long?” Knuckles had went right back to clutching his shoulder, sitting heavily on the bed just after barely missing Sonic's legs in the process. The hedgehog only mumbled a curse as he settled again, making sure to glare at the echidna quietly.

  Shadow didn't answer at first, not because he was thinking of his answer, but because he was concerned. He slowly approached the bed, hand reaching towards the echidna's arm before he paused and pulled back to glance at his hand. His eyes were green. “Can you even move that?”

  “What, my arm? Sure, when I run cold water on it.”

  Shadow only continued to stare, then sighed. It was best if he didn't say anything, he supposed. “I've been infected for three days now.” He finally answered, eyes returning to their red hue. “I don't know what information that could give you.”

  Sonic shrugged while Knuckles remained quiet, now looking at his arm in concern. He just took a bath in ice cold water, but he wasn't able to move his arm right after. Before could do it, even though he didn't have feeling in it, but it could still  _ move _ . Now, it just laid limp at his side.

  There was talking, Shadow and Tails were talking now but he didn't pay attention. What was he staring at? What did he see? Why did he ask if he could move his arm? Wait, no, he didn't ask about his arm. He said ‘ _ that _ .’ Can you move ‘that’, not ‘your arm’.

  “Are you not telling me something?” He suddenly blurted, uncaring if he was interrupting whatever they were saying. “Shadow, are you not telling me something? What did you see?”

  The hedgehog quietly looked away, as if in thought, but Knuckles refused to wait for an answer.

  “Tell me!”

  “Shards. I saw shards, throughout your arm. Where there would normally be bone, I saw shards. Similar to the ones jutting from your skull and shoulder.” He sighed. “That information would not have comforted you, so I didn't say it.”

  Knuckles looked to the ground, eyes beginning to water. They started talking again, but he didn't listen to a word of it. Shards… instead of bone? Was that why he could feel his arm anymore? Was it just spreading and he didn't notice?

  No, no… This wasn't it. Knuckles abruptly stood and charged out, uncaring if he knocked into someone. No, no, this wasn't going to happen.

  He rushed into the bathroom again and slammed the door behind him, but he wasn't interested in the water anymore. No. He had to take this out.

  The emerald, the Master, he meant, was inside his body, his being, and it was killing him. It was going to eat away his body if he didn't stop it, so that was exactly what he was going to do.

  Knuckles gripped his glove with his teeth and tore it off, dropping the fabric into the sink as he looked into the mirror.

  His eyes.

  They were the first thing he noticed, bright green on top of violet. It wasn't…  _ natural _ .

  His eyes finally trailed over to his shoulder in the reflection, the contrast between brilliant green and red fur. It didn't need to be there. It  _ shouldn't _ be there.

  Fingers dug into the junction between shard and flesh, blood pooling as the small, sharp claws tore into the flesh and searched for a lip to pull at. He couldn't feel it, anyway. Or, at least that's what he told himself. 

  All the noises he was making were just grunts of effort, sure. Not pain, no. This didn't hurt, of course.

  There was no lip to grab. He dug his claws into the emerald itself, but it continued to… to  _ feel _ .

  It didn't held that his eyes kept watering, it was annoying. After a while, he didn't bother to wipe the water away anymore, and just let to run down his muzzle and gather in the sink, along with the flowing red streaks.

  The banging at the door finally stopped, and he sighed. Then, a sound akin to a roar exploded behind him, and in the mirror Knuckles could see the door splinter apart as green chaos claws parted through the wood as if it was soft butter. The door crumbled and collapsed, and in its wake, green flames licked at the fallen wood and Tails flew through the gap.

  The kit grabbed his arm, yanked his hand free of the wound, and spoke to him, but he didn't listen right away.

  “Knuckles, come on, sit down and rest.” Tails coaxed, and after a beat of silence, the echidna nodded. He only wanted to remove the emerald, he wasn't trying to hurt himself.

  As he followed Tails out, stepping over the ashy remains of what used to be the bathroom door, he locked eyes with Shadow. The hedgehog had his ears folded back and was scratching at his wrists, but looked as if he had something to say. The two only looked away once again, deciding that the words could wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Knuckles


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which sonic and shadow look Stupid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I've been working on another story [(not) like you] along with life in general getting in the way. I hope you understand, thanks!

  It had been a full week since Tails started housing the three, and the Chaos Infection, as they aptly named it, had only worsened.

  Shadow’s was calm, if one could say that. He could no longer wear gloves without them burning off, and his limiter rings had cracks in them from attempting to withstand the force of the emerald shards against the surface. He struggled to do most daily tasks, but Tails and Sonic were usually happy to help.

  Sonic himself was miserable. Bright red shards had broken out from his ankles and jutted out so sharply that it was uncomfortable to simply stand or walk for too long. He could no longer wear his shoes and was offered slippers in exchange, but he passed with a broken smile. Running was something he wanted to do every single hour he had alone, but he spoke nothing of it.

  Knuckles was the worst of the bunch.

  Tails climbed the stairs with caution, listening carefully for the splashes of water from the bathroom. When he heard none, the kit slowly opened his guest bedroom door and offered a pained smile at Knuckles.

  The echidna had just sat down on the bed, a damp, pink stained towel hanging over his shoulder, his left, head hanging down as he pulled his glove on with his teeth.

  “Hey Knuckles,” Tails greeted quietly, calling as if he was speaking to a child. “I'm back from the store and bought some grapes, want them?”

  At first, Knuckles only shrugged and let his hand fall back into his lap, then sighed and lift his head to look at Tails with his remaining eye. The other had become encrusted with crystal shards one night, the change so sudden he was lucky he didn't have to endure it, but waking up unable to see out of one eye and drowning in a puddle of your own blood wasn't a very good feeling.

  “Sure.” he rasped, pressing down on the bed to stand and shuffle forward. He grabbed the stained towel and tossed it to the floor, uncaring about hiding his arm anymore.

  Tails met him halfway, turning on the bedside lamp as he offered him the bowl. He eyed the downed towel for no longer than a second, but even he didn't have enough strength to care about it.

  “...” The echidna sighed. “You know, I only feel more useless the more you help me.”

  “I know, I know, I just-- I can't help it, seeing everyone like this, miserable, barely able to do what they want to do… I just don't know how to help, and I'm trying, and I'm calling around every hour for any help from Rouge and Amy--” Tails’ nakesakes twisted in a knot as he turned around, pacing a few steps before tossing his hands up. “And  _ Amy _ ! I haven't heard from her! It's been what, two days since I last heard from her? And Eggman! What--”

  “Slow down.” Knuckled huffed, setting his hand on Tails’ shoulder. “You're just working yourself up. I dunno how we'll do anything, but we'll get there when the time comes.”

  Tails nodded, still not facing him. His shoulders began to shake as he took a quiet breath. “You're… right. Uh…” his head tilted downwards, but Knuckles said nothing. “Sonic and Shadow are trying an experiment on themselves. Can you keep an eye on them while I fly to find Amy?”

  Knuckles grunted quietly as an agreement, following Tails out into the hall while casting a quick glance back at his grapes. He was interested in eating. Actually, he hadn't eaten in a while, ever since the Master Emerald decided to consume half of his body, and he quietly wondered if Sonic felt the same way, or if Tails even noticed. But… the curiosity to see what the two hedgehogs were doing was getting the best of him.

  As he neared the stairs, he paused, closing his remaining eye and calling onto the master emerald. Within an instant it listened, lifting his arm high-- much higher than he needed-- and letting him walk down the stairs without the annoying sound and aching pain of his arm slamming into the next step down.

  “You're getting better at that.”

  “I fuckin’ better…” Knuckles whispered, then sighed as he reached the living room. His arm slowly lowered to remain limp again, and couldn't help the suppressed laugh from escaping his chest. “ _ What _ are you two even doing?”

  Sonic was currently on the floor with both legs straight up in the air, Shadow hovering over him and reaching for the red shards jutting from his ankles with his arms straight and the back of his hands forward. They both turned to him, obviously knowing how stupid their positions were.

  “Uh, an experiment?” Sonic shrugged, where even he could hardly explain. “It was Shadow's idea.”

  It was the ebony hedgehog’s turn to explain, and just as he opened his mouth, Tails left the house entirely. They paused but decided not to talk about it.

  “You know best. When all seven chaos emeralds come close to each other, they will repel each other once enough energy is used and travel to random locations.” Shadow placed his hands back to Sonic's ankles again, where his hands began to shake and Sonic shifted his legs with a face of discomfort. “They're already doing so now, so I think… if we gather the rest of the emeralds--”

  “And how exactly are we going to do that if no one is allowed to touch them?” Knuckles interrupted, squinting and tilting his body as to emphasize how much his body had been altered due to the Master. “We can't touch them with our bare hands, and we can't touch them while wearing gloves. What's your plan, then?”

  Sonic sat up, narrowly avoiding slicing Shadow's arms open with his shards. “Oh! Just put em in a box and send them over here. Or we just go over to where each one is, and--” he stopped suddenly, and Shadow sighed.

  “I don't know if touching another emerald while infected will cause the other one to still fuse with us.” 

  “Plus, if one does fuse and we get the rest, what'll happen? Would they just… rip… off?”

  Knuckles stiffly shook his head, trying not to hiss at the sharp pain in his neck. “...We honestly don't have any other options, so that's all we can work with for now.”

  The trio silently settled for the idea, as unplanned as it could possibly be. There was a thought of is Knuckles would still have an arm afterwards, but before it could be brought up, there was a beeping sound and Sonic fumbled for his communicator.

  “Yo, Tails. What's--?”

  “I found Amy.”

  The single sentence made his heart drop, and Sonic swallowed thickly. “Is she… okay?”

  “The emerald formed in her chest.” There was crying in the background. “She didn't want to say anything because she thought we would be upset, but she's fine.”

  “In her chest…?” Sonic repeated, looking at Knuckles and Shadow. They looked concerned, to say the least, and the emerald's colour burned bright within their eyes.

  Sonic quickly moved to another room, and figuring that they should give him privacy, the two left him be.

  "Knuckles," Shadow started, and the echidna hummed in acknowledgement, moving to sit on the couch. "We've barely heard your side. What do you think?"

  "What do  _ I _ think?" Knuckles manually lifted his arm to lay over the arm of the couch then sat forward, leaning on his free palm. "I don't know. There could be answers on Angel Island back home, but with this arm… I can't look for anything. Flesh bodies aren't  _ made _ to hold this much chaos energy, we can't stay like this forever-- it'll  _ kill _ us."

  Shadow nodded quietly, eyes flashing briefly before he turned away, curling up on himself. "...Do you remember that frog? The purple cat…"

  "Froggy?"

  "Yes. Froggy ate an emerald and grew a tail. Would similar mutations happen to us?"

  Knuckles laughed, so short and sudden that it was almost startling, head snapping back as grinned ear to ear. "You saw something else, didn't you? I saw you looking at me, what did you see? It's not just my arm, is it? I've already lost half my  _ damn vision, _ and  _ all function _ of my  _ left arm _ and have to deal with constant splitting headaches,  _ what else did you see _ ?"

  Shadow hissed. "It's spreading. It's slow. I wouldn't have noticed it normally, but it's spreading, and I'm concerned for you."

  Knuckles opened his mouth, blood beginning to boil, but Sonic coming back into the room made him shut it again and silently stew in his emotions.

  "Amy's fine, she touched it on accident." He started. "She can't summon her hammer and has been avoiding going outside for the last two days. Tails is going to stay over there with her for a bit, so we're on our own for a bit."

  The two nodded. Sonic looked between them, then decided it was best to not question it and move on.

  "Oh yeah, Knux, look," Sonic walked up to him, gesturing to his arm. "We're in this together, okay? I'm gonna help as best as I can, Shadow's gonna help, Tails, and Amy too. Tomorrow we're gonna see if we can still use our powers, and once we get that settled, we'll see what we can do afterwards."

   Knuckles looked at Sonic, staring him down, as if waiting for him to back down or turn away, but he didn't. With a belated sigh, the echidna shrugged. "...Thanks. I'll... keep that in mind."

**Author's Note:**

> Knuckles smiled at the sky, feeling the warmth of the sun cascade across his damp fur. "I'm sure if I asked them," He sighed, crawling from the stream to kick off his soggy shoes and peel his gloves from his drenched hands. "If I asked, they would always help me. They're great friends."


End file.
